


Subsidy

by orphan_account



Category: The Walking Dead (Comics)
Genre: First Time, Hurt Rick, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 14:31:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11163834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Negan is coerced into making a decision, one that isn't so great for Rick.





	Subsidy

**Author's Note:**

> A little bit AU. Negan hasn't escaped from his cell yet and Andrea is...regrettably...gone. Carl is in Hilltop.  
> If you haven't read the comics you might be a little lost...

 

 

 

It's unavoidable. There is no event or sequence of events that he could change to make things turn out differently.

Because he has no moves to make, every day in a jail cell is the same. And even though he's been in captivity for nearly two years he's never felt this powerless. He's heard whispers and Rick himself has even come to him directly for advice.

It's serious if Rick asks _him_.

Alpha. For whatever reason, Negan isn't really expecting it to be a woman, bald with strong features. Isn't expecting Beta to be a mammoth man. Negan's heard from Carl, about his new sweet little girlfriend Lydia, all about Alpha and it isn't good.

She's the lowest of the fucking low. Allowing her own child to be raped by her men. 

Negan gets it. Oh, he gets it. It's not like he doesn't understand it - why people do it and how fucking tempting it can be in the right context. Being powerful enough to just _take_. That vicious rush of dominance and cathartic release of aggression. It's fucking sick, because it leaves devastation in its wake. Disturbs something intimate and beautiful.

Carl will kill him when he finds out. Negan knows the boy, and he _likes_ Carl, even if the only emotion Carl feels at all anymore is for his father. Can't believe the boy was going to kill Maggie, who's almost like a mother to him, just for laying a few hits. And Negan was indirectly the instigator of that. 

The boy won't give him a second thought after he puts a bullet through his brain. He'll probably pretend though, for Rick's sake. And who is Carl going to come to then, once he's dead? Who else can he tell his thoughts to that won't judge him? The boy can't even tell Rick - and Negan is with Carl on that. Rick shouldn't know.

Rick probably knows.

He always seems to. Probably knows that Carl killed Andrea's little boys, that Negan _wants_ him.

It's okay because Negan knows something too. 

He thinks he knows why Rick led them here.

 

 

There's commotion - a fucking lot of it - up top long before the door ever bangs open and Rick tumbles down the stairs.

They're not fucking gentle about it.

Negan very nearly opens his mouth to tell whoever it is to knock it the fuck off - and don't they know they can't just toss a disabled man down the basement stairs like a dirty dish rag?

But he waits. Lies in wait. He's a formidable beast and it's been a while but he hasn't forgotten.

Alpha and Beta follow Rick down. The woman's eyes clip to his.

"You are his enemy?" she asks. 

"Rick's? You could say that." he says lowly. Whistles wetly when Beta turns Rick over and brings his boot down in the middle of Rick's diaphragm, avoiding the ribs.

Rick tries to catch his breath. 

"Nice." Negans sneers, and Rick looks up at him then like he's just been betrayed.

"You need to be punished." Beta says, looks to Alpha for approval, which seems fucking presumptuous to Negan because the man already has his hand on Rick's belt buckle.

Rick's dorky little farmer-hick-southern gentlemen-cowpoke belt buckle.

Negan's vision floods red.

He turns a baleful glance to Rick.

"Oh _please_ make him suffer." He says, on just the edge of gleeful. 

"He has done you wrong?" Alpha asks and Beta pauses, hangs on Alpha's every word. 

"That cocksucker there? Yeah, you could fucking say that. Please - not just for my sake, it's obvious he's fucked you over too - fuck him so raw he'll never be able to stand straight again."

The words are leaving his mouth when he realizes he's the one who has literally made it so Rick will never stand straight again. The thought nearly, dangerously, detracts from Negan's razor sharp predator focus.

It seems like a gamble but Negan has them pegged. Beta's not the dangerous one. He's panting after Alpha like a bitch in heat. Trying to _please_ Alpha by putting his hands on Rick. 

And Beta has just found his second, someone who will do the dirty work for him.

"You take him." The man says and Alpha nods her approval.

 

 

They have a lot of men. Some of them crowd in the stairs to watch. 

Negan could take Beta, and probably around five men, but it isn't enough. They aren't leaving the basement on his terms. Rick trembles, looks shell shocked and pale. 

"But why?" He asks Alpha, lips bloodlessly pressed together, brow disapproving.

"Because you need to learn. It is the way of things." She says simply. 

They unlock Negan's cell. Rick's trying not to look at him. He draws away though, first to one side then the other when Negan dramatically makes a feint for him. He plays with him like a cat with its very favorite mouse.

He drags Rick by the leg to the center of the room, lets him crawl away, drags him back again.

There's only so long that can go on though, and Negan can't afford for them to get suspicious.

His hands don't stumble, he's sure and steady. 

He can't get the buckle properly undone so he snaps it. Drags Rick's jeans down his legs. Rick brings his hand up to punch him then but he catches it easily and presses it back down above Rick's head. The stump in his eye catches him by surprise and he's disappointed in himself for that, because now Rick is going to have to pay for it.

"Thought that hurt Princess?" he says, and smacks Rick condescendingly. Then again with so much force it makes Rick's head snap.

When he gets to the part where he flips Rick over so he doesn't have to see his face he pauses. 

"I'm not really a fudgepacker." He admits to Alpha a little leery. "so excuse the fuck out of my form. Rick's a little disgusting, isn't he? I don't want my dick in that, but - you know, he's gotta learn. Hear that, Rick? This is for your benefit."

Rick twists beneath him and an aching cry sounds out. 

Negan has to hold him down, a heavy palm spread across his back. 

 

 

Negan inches in. He doesn't enjoy it. He has a pretense not to.

He worries he'll go soft but after the first inch he realizes he's in more danger than he thought.

He almost gets lost in the high of it. Thinks a groan of surprise leaves his mouth.

They're all watching but Rick can't see them. 

Negan's hips stutter forward of their own volition. He has to consciously slow himself down. It's torturous. In a flash of insight, he realizes how _fucking stupid_ he is to think he could do this.

"Rick," he says, and his hips just keep rolling, gaining momentum exponentially. "Oh, _Rick_."

It's so _good he wants to kill_ _himself._

It shouldn't be good but it is. He fumbles Rick hard. His strokes are long and even. Rick is making these noises on the push inward and Negan had meant to spare him this. 

"Rick. _Rick._ Oh, fuck. Rick, _you're-_ " 

Negan isn't supposed to enjoy it. Only barely catches the apology about to tumble out of his mouth.

 

 

Alpha doesn't let anyone else take Rick then. Tells her men they'll bring him home and everyone who wants him then can have him - same as any of them. Only they mean to kill him afterward. There aren't a lot of takers.

Negan doesn't know why - why Rick with his big bright eyes, and sullen pink mouth don't stir up much lust but he's glad for it.

Negan isn't sure what he would have done if they insisted. Probably, he would have blown it. Would have gotten them both killed. He likes to think though that he could have been strong enough to watch to save Rick's life. It isn't true.

It makes the fact that Negan has had his hands all over him more damning.

"Would you like to join us?" Alpha asks. 

Negan shrugs noncommittally, "I guess I can check it out." He smiles with hooded eyes at her. "As long as you promise it'll be you showing me the ropes."

"I am amenable to that." Alpha says, and her practiced dignity can't hide her pleased countenance.

 

 

Rick is taken ahead of them, escorted by two disinterested grunts. Alpha hangs back to deliberately give them more privacy. She likes Negan and it shows. Beta hangs back and watches them, biting anger on his face.

There's a commotion, Negan guesses it must be Rick. Alpha isn't concerned but she sends Beta, who's reluctant to go.

Negan only has a few moments, and it's all he really needs. For the head of a pack that arranges its hierarchy on dominance Alpha isn't very impressive.

He takes her head, because he wants it.

"Wait until Rick gets a load of you." He says quietly into the heavy summer air.

 

 

Getting Rick is harder. Negan sends the guards away easily enough - tell them Alpha's put him in charge of the captive but Beta is still there. If Alpha isn't so impressive at the top - then Beta is obviously the reason she made it there at all.

Negan almost loses. Rick isn't in any condition to fight. But then Rick _sees_ the head and the crazy fuckwad throws it at Beta.

It puts him off his guard. The man looks like his entire life has just been flushed down the shitter.

Negan knifes him then, as quickly and quietly as he can.

"You want the head?" he asks Rick - Rick, who looks up at him, actually meets his eyes but keeps the emotions behind shuttered.

He shakes his head in the negative.

Rick has to keep an arm around Negan on the way back so he can walk.

It's dark and they stumble. Rick presses a hand to Negan's chest at one point to steady himself. Negan feels like a man approaching the gallows - every thought, every moment, every sight and sensation is catalogued with distressing detail.

 

 

Rick's people have rallied by the time they reach the gate and Negan wants to spit, 'it's a little fucking late' at them bitchily but he doesn't.

A few of them startle when they see him. Aaron immediately approaches and shifts Rick onto him instead. Heath and Michonne try to approach Negan then but Rick waves them off.

"Rick-" Michonne says lowly and Negan hates the way the two communicate with their eyes, without words.

"Let him be." Rick says and Negan wonders what that means.

"I'm not leaving." Negan interjects. Doesn't care if he ends up back in the cell or at the end of Carl's gun.

Suddenly no one in Alexandria has time to pay him any mind. He wanders aimlessly after Rick until he's shooed off by Denise.

 

 

He knows which house is Rick's. Unless Rick has changed residences but Negan finds that unlikely. He sleeps in the man's bed.

It's just breaking day when Rick slips in tiredly beside him. He has his back to him, and he must have heard Negan shift because he speaks to him.

"I..I'm just a little tired right now. I don't want to talk about this Negan." His shoulders are slumped. The very breath in his lungs seems fragile.

Negan thinks of a thousand things to say - sorry, for one. Or a crack about how Rick's bed is comfier than the cot at the prison. Maybe a mention of Carl's homicidal intentions so they won't catch Rick off guard.

What he settles on is, "Thank you for trusting me."

It's monumental.

"Yeah.." Rick's voice cracks, "that didn't really turn out as planned."

Negan can see Rick bring a hand to his eyes, wipe tears away. There's a hurt sob leaking from Rick's chest.

Negan touches him then. Puts a hand hesitantly on his shoulder and turns him. Rick goes willingly enough. Settles against him.

Negan wipes a tear away, "Things will look better in the morning Rick."

"You better look better in the morning." Rick says, "I don't want a coyote ugly situation." 

Negans huffs in surprise, Rick still has tears on his cheeks but he's making an effort at humor, at a soft smile that doesn't reach his eyes. 

"You don't have to make me feel better Rick." Negan isn't sure it's possible.

Rick ignores him and pushes closer, shuffles down into the covers, sniffles and buries his face in Negan's shoulder. The man's asleep in seconds.

It's impossible, but some of the tension inside of him eases a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
